Stats Zone Premier League Team of the Season 2013/14

Let's first deal with the elephant in the room. Were these awards decided by acreage of newsprint and social-media flannel, Steven Gerrard would walk away with not just a place in this XI but probably the Player of the Season. The Liverpool captain certainly dragged his team on, with 13 assists and 1,908 completed passes, but he was less impressive defensively, making five vital errors (yes, including that one against Chelsea): among outfielders, only Mark Noble and Marc Wilson made more. Gerrard also only made a third of class leader Mile Jedinak's 139 interceptions.

If the fairytale narrative was Gerrard leading Liverpool to the title, Arsenal fans can only wonder about Aaron Ramsey's injury. When fit – and yes, he reached the Stats Zone Awards minimum of half the available minutes – the Welshman was superb, either scoring or assisting every 98 minutes on average, one of only five players to do so. Crucially, without him Arsenal collapsed – before rallying upon his return to clinch both fourth place and the FA Cup. Had he lasted the season, he might have had other medals to polish, both collective and individual.